One of the events I attended last weekend in Kendal was The Write Comic Stuff, with Ed Brubaker and Kurt Busiek, two of the USA’s best known comic writers talking about their craft. UK comic connoisseur Paul Gravett was the host, and with the combined, immense knowledge of all three men the talk provided a fascinating insight into the different processes of scriptwriting for this wonderfully malleable medium.

Something Ed Brubaker said about his writing really got me thinking about my own.

Ed said that a writer is either an architect or a gardener (with he himself being a gardener); defining an architect as the writer who plots out the story as a whole, and a gardener as the writer who lets the story unfold and grow as they go along.

I thought about this and wondered: how does that apply to a cross-media writer like me?

I often describe my writing as architectural. I talk about shape and structure in my scripts as being paramount for their strength and honesty. If you don’t have the structure right, then you can’t dress that structure properly – with emotion, drama, intrigue, or whatever it is that the narrative requires.

But just as important in my method is the ‘space’ I write into my scripts that gives the artist I’m writing for the room to play. And whilst the creation of those spaces might sound like an architectural act, it’s actually a very organic process: and necessarily so. I say necessarily, because these spaces are very tricky places to get right. They have to balance direction with freedom in order to support the process of true artistic collaboration. They have to be able to flex and react and accommodate. They have to unfold and grow….

So I’m not quite sure what kind of writer this makes me?

And will this inaugural event have been the first of several? I do hope so!

So I was part of a panel event called 'Rocking with Horror': talking about horror in comics alongside Hannah Berry, Ian Culbard and David Hine; featuring HOAX composer Minute Taker; and chaired by Alex Fitch.

It really was great fun! Alex had me up first, so I spoke about how, for me, the worst horror is in the real. I referenced some of the many horror artworks that are based on real events (The Girl Next Door, The Blob, The Shining…), how they range from the very graphic, the fantastical, the psychological, through to biographical and auto-biographical. And I talked about my own comic works (The Tale of Brin & Bent and Minno Marylebone and HOAX Psychosis Blues) as being somewhere in the midst of all of those elements.

HOAX composer Minute Taker then performed two of the songs from the musical HOAX My Lonely Heart. It was an amazing demonstration of how he’s using loop-pedal layering to develop soundscapes that can convey the horror of schizophrenia.

David then talked about his preference for looking into the dark corners of a horror story and showing head-on, in their full glory, the monsters he found there.

Ian questioned that, and asked whether psychological suggestion was the more effective way.

And Hannah talked about her methods of employing subtlety to lead the reader unaware towards the horror: such that the innocuous can become very suddenly ‘nocuous!’

We had a short but interesting debate on these different approaches, then were far-too-soon out of time as the festival roared on with its incredibly rich programme of events.

It was a brilliant festival in every single aspect. Superbly put together with a fantastic array of talent and interest. I feel certain we’ll be seeing it raise its fine, old-stone Kendal head again next year, and many more years to come after that.

Today is the first day of the first ever LAKES INTERNATIONAL COMIC ART FESTIVAL. I'm speaking there tomorrow, along with HOAX composer Minute Taker, on the Rocking With Horror panel, and so am heading up to Kendal today, along with the Beau, the Daughter and Friend-of-Daughter-Noah. Ordinarily I'd be a little more organised for something like this than I am, however, with work and recent events, I'm running a little behind.

As I hastily gather together my notes, clothes and waterproofs (Lake District + October = good chance of rain), I marvel over how amazingly well the founders and supporters have pulled this inaugural event together. The programme, the guests, the arrangements... all incredible. And the way the local community is involved is nothing short of inspiring. They've even created a beer!

"Staveley-based Hawkshead Brewery has teamed up with The Lakes International Comic Art Festival to produce a limited-edition beer for the event. The label design is by American cartoonist Gilbert Shelton, creator of Fat Freddy, and named after Fat Freddy’s beer of choice – Tall Toad."

It's going to be a great event for comics, graphic novels, writing and art. But it's also going to be a great event for real people to meet real people - and that's what I'm looking forward to the most.